It was a stormy Saturday on St. George Island, with the west wind gusting 40-50mph; too windy for walking and too rough to be safely on the beach. We postponed our COASST beach survey, and spent a cozy afternoon learning about halibut and painting some wooden fish. Jillian and Chipper got focused with colors and glitter, and it was fun hearing some new facts about halibut. We are amazed that they hatch looking like normal fish (with an eye on each side of their head), but the left eye slowly migrates to the right hand side of their head as they grow older- so that both eyes are eventually on the same side of their head! How crazy is that!
It was also interesting to learn some similarities with seabirds. Both halibut and seabirds are marine predators, both are long lived (halibut can live 40 years plus), and halibut have counter-shading (their top half is dark and their underside is lighter colored) similar to many seabird species such as murres and horned puffins.
